Social media marketing has become a very important tool in allowing companies to find fresh and creative ways to attract more customers. All the popular social media platforms like Facebook, Google+, and Twitter have certain features that can make your marketing campaigns more effective. Here are some of the ways in which you can use these tools improve your business.

Fan Pages on Facebook Timeline

Facebook is by far the biggest social network in the world, with about a billion registered users. In the last few months, Facebook has made numerous changes to its interface and these changes can be helpful for businesses. The changes have also affected the fan pages, where you can no longer have a landing tab.

Instead, you need to create a custom tab name and a custom tab photo. There are different Facebook applications that can be used for creating custom tabs. You can embed the email capture form into the tab along with a video, a picture, and some text. Once you have created the custom tab, you can edit the tab name and the tab photo. Try Facebook ads for advertising your freebie offers and then divert the ad traffic to the custom tab.

Follow on LinkedIn Company

LinkedIn may not be as big in terms of the number of users as Facebook, but it is the network of choice for people who want to connect to professionals and companies. Recently, LinkedIn released a widget called the Company Follow Button. The button looks similar to a re-tweet button from Twitter, and it makes it a lot easier for users to follow your company page on LinkedIn without leaving your site.

Manage Social Media on BufferApp

BufferApp is a content management system and a great social media tool. Using this app, you can add content to your Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook accounts even before it is published. Also, the application automatically spaces out the content for you, which is not the case with applications like TweetDeck or HootSuite. The spacing out aspect is very important because if you spontaneously post something, then the scheduled posts move out so that you do not spam your followers.

Pin to Pinterest

Pinterest is the most recent social media site to hit the Internet, and it’s a hit in every way. Pinterest’s pinboard style social photo sharing website allows users to create manage theme based image collections on their own personal pinboards. Companies can use Pinterest to connect their physical presence with their online one thereby boosting brand awareness. In order to make an impact on Pinterest, companies should consider pinning item every day to help keep them top of mind. And, companies can use this photo sharing site promote products, launch new ideas, post interesting tips and information.

Post to YouTube

Many businesses do not understand how to use YouTube efficiently. They believe that YouTube provides video hosting for free and that is its biggest benefit. That is similar to reading a newspaper just for the cartoon strip. YouTube's real benefit is that it is a social media platform that wants you to interact with your followers. If you want to get more subscribers to your channel, simply ask those who view your video to subscribe to it. You can ask the users to join your channel either in the video itself or you can add an annotation in the video.

Focus on generating cash

Never get carried away and try to use all the social media platforms out there. This can become overwhelming and difficult to manage. Focus on social media sites where the majority of your customers are.

Remember, having a large number of followers on social media site should not be your sole motive. You need to have a plan to ensure that you can generate leads from these followers. In the end, the success of your campaign depends upon the money you make.